


Introduction to Worst Case Scenarios

by itslikegodspilledaperson



Series: Random Fics/ Alternate Universe [2]
Category: Community (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-05
Updated: 2015-05-05
Packaged: 2018-03-29 05:51:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,246
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3884824
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/itslikegodspilledaperson/pseuds/itslikegodspilledaperson
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>So anyone watching S6 knows that it hasn't exactly been filled with J/A stuff and with only 4 episodes to go a few people are doubting if we will get our happy ending.  while i love reading these fics about happy endings, i thought that maybe a good coping mechanism would be to write something where J/A don't exactly get together at the end of S6.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Introduction to Worst Case Scenarios

**Author's Note:**

> please don't hate me for writing this.

“The FBI offered me a job at their Salt Lake City headquarters!”

The words rang through Jeff’s brain as if a firecracker had just gone off right next to him. In a way, a firecracker HAD gone off. He just sat there, mouth agape with dumbfounded eyes, as the rest of the Save Greendale Committee got up and celebrated with Annie, hugging her and patting her on the back. He felt his phone slip out of his limp hand, hitting the floor with a thud it seemed only he could hear. Was it awe? No. Panic? Possibly. But it was a third thing too, something he was pretty sure he hadn’t felt since his parents sat him down at the dining room 35 years ago to tell him they were splitting up.

He felt an elbow nudge him, and he looked up to see Britta standing next to him. “You look like you’ve seen a ghost… everything all right?”

He snapped out of it, and fumbled around for his phone. “yeah, I uh, just need to, um… check on, uh, check on something.” He reached down for his phone, retrieving it in one clean swipe while spinning up and heading out the other entrance to the study room. He ignored the group calling after him and paced through the halls of Greendale, his own personal prison that seemed to be collapsing around him. The more thoughts entered his mind, the more he picked up speed. 

He’d waited too long. Jeff Winger, the king of bold gambles and speaking his mind, had waited too long. First, he had waited because she was simply too young. Then all of a sudden she wasn’t so young anymore, and he told himself it was merely a physical attraction, and that he couldn’t give her the wholesome relationship she so desired. But then he realized he loved her. So he told himself he wasn’t ready, and that he couldn’t be with her because he was holding her back. She was set on a path for greatness and he didn’t want to slow her down. He’d always thought of an excuse, always put off acting on the one thing that had been on his mind 24/7 since their stupid debate back in his freshman year. He turned down a narrow hallway, and burst into a classroom right in the middle of a lecture. The professor looked over at him, startled. 

“Is something wro-“

“Faulty wiring in the cafeteria, have to reset it from downstairs” was his deadpan reply as he worked his way to the corner of the classroom without making eye contact with a single soul. He reached his hand into the corner of the wall where it met the carpet, getting a good hold on the carpet and lunging up, lifting with his legs as his personal trainer had taught him when he was eight. The carpet came ripping loose, and he could hear a classroom of 30 kids, adults, and domesticated animals gasping behind him.

“I’ll pay for it,” was his automatic response as he opened the hidden trapdoor beneath the carpet and clambered down the steps. 

Borchert’s secret lair; also known as the original Greendale. He made his way through it much quicker than him and the gang had when they’d descended a year earlier, and a rough etching of a map was still logged somewhere deep in his brain. He channeled it, and eventually wound up at the dead end where a secret combination opened up to the bunker. Once again, having been down a year earlier he knew exactly what he had to do. The hidden door slid open, and he walked into the beaming white room covered from corner to corner with outdated computer equipment and golden mainframes. But there was one computer more unique than the rest- not Racquel, even though she was still down here, functional, with her emotional components online. No, one of the servers. He slid open its protective covering to reveal a hollow space inside the machine where there should have been wiring and a hard drive, but instead there was a single bottle of unopened scotch and a lone glass, both of which he removed as he headed over to a chair and sank himself into it. He turned over to the newly installed button that closed the door and thumbed it, then closed his eyes and rested his head against the back of the chair. He listened to the sound of the bunker door closing, relaxing when he heard it lock shut. 

But it opened again. His eyelids shot back up as he swiveled his head towards the bunker entrance to see who had found him so quickly.

Annie.

She stood in the middle of the doorway, black slacks and a red button down cardigan, arms folded with a look he’d hoped he’d seen the last of etched across her face. 

“Ever heard of knocking?”

Her face didn’t’ flinch a bit. She slowly began to walk towards him. “You know, I’m aware things have been a bit different between us since, well… we were last in this room together, but at the very least I thought you could offer up a congratulations or something.”

“Annie, I’m sorry, I just… I can’t-“

“Can’t what? Can’t congratulate a friend who just got her life back on track? Of all people, I thought YOU would appreciate how much it means to leave this place behind. This place that has done nothing but, but, tear me down and make me doubt myself and trap me in like I was some sort of zoo animal. This place that reminded me what heartbreak felt like over and over and OVER AGAIN WHEN ALL I WANTED TO DO WAS FORGET. Do you know how painful that is? DO YOU?”

Heartbreak? That one hit like a punch to the gut. Jeff started at his feet, unable to make eye contact.

“Well?”

He sighed, and met her gaze. Her eyes, as soft and welcoming as they could be, could also be turned to daggers at a moment’s notice and right now he was feeling the full brunt of their power. 

“Yes.”

For the first time since she’d come downstairs, her eyes softened. They were still daggers and still trained on his face, but they were approachable enough for him to seize the opportunity and get a word in before they returned to their deadly former state. 

“Yes, Annie, of course I know the kind of hell this place is. Do you not think that I’m happy for you? I’m ecstatic for you! But you know what? I’m also extremely jealous, and sad, and enraged, and guilty for feeling anything but the utmost joy for you. You got out. And soon…”

He sighed,

“Everyone will.”

Her eyes softened just a little bit more.

“Britta’s actually almost graduated, Abed just landed that writing internship in L.A., Frankie’s a consultant on contract with us until the end of the month, Shirley and Troy got out, everyone got out, but… Even if they all left, I don’t think I would’ve cared. As long as you stayed. But… but you can’t stay, Annie. You have to go out and cure cancer or solve world hunger or do whatever amazing thing that we all know you’re more than capable of doing, but just because I know you can’t stay doesn’t mean I don’t want you to. And I hate myself for wanting you to stay because I am a selfish, selfish man and I don’t deserve to be holding any of you back. Especially not you.”

Her face was in a sort of neutral state, as she processed what he had just told her. 

“Why me?” 

“I think you know the answer to that.”

“Do I?” a certain edge had re-established itself in her voice.

He sighed, running his hands through his hair. Then he saw Racquel out of the corner of his eyes. She had apparently followed his gaze, because the expression on her face was one of a million things; shock, intrigue, anger, bewilderment, all of the above. 

“I need to show you something”, he confessed. She must have been able to piece together what he was about to do, because she cut him off pretty quickly.

“No. I need to show YOU something,”

What? That hadn’t been the answer he was expecting. He looked at her once more, trying to get a read, but all it seemed to portray was pain.

She reached over and hit the button to close the bunker door, then grabbed the headset off of Racquel and put it over her ears, with tears (tears??) beginning to stream down her eyes. She stared at him for what was probably only a few seconds, but in his mind lasted an eternity. Usually when she started at him, it felt like she was seeing right through him. But this time it was different. She was staring AT him, focusing on him, studying him, when suddenly.

The door opened. His jaw dropped. There were more of those tears now, as she removed the headset and tossed it across the room, the metallic apparatus clanging off the tile floor. 

“I’ve waited six years for you, Jeff. Six. Painful. Years. I always thought it was coming, that you were going to finally admit it to me, to someone-to yourself, at least. But it never came. And I can’t stay behind for you now, as much as every bone in my body wants to.”

She sobbed, and he felt a tear or two welling up in his eyes as well.

“I…love you. I love you so, so much. But Jeff, if you can’t admit a feeling like this to yourself, if you can’t at least let me know how you feel and let me decide what is best for me, I can’t help you. I love that you want the best for me, and that you’d be willing to sacrifice your feelings so that I could pursue my dreams, but it’s not your call to make. I’ve wanted …this, for so long, but I can’t wait for you to decide when a relationship is convenient for you. Not while I’m here, at least.”

He took it in. All of it. She was right, and he knew it. She approached him, and wrapped her arms around his as he reciprocated and held onto her for dear life, now breaking into a full-fledged cry. He never wanted to let go. Never. But he HAD to. So he slowly pushed her off him, tilting her chin up to meet his gaze, her eyes still considerably wet from her crying. The more they stared at eachother with their pained, tired eyes, the more obvious it became that they couldn’t simply JUST stare at each other from this proximity. He pulled her in slowly, their lips coming into contact and melting together in one of the most tender, heartfelt kisses he had ever been a part of. Even the last few times they had kissed, they had been in the heat of the moment and somewhat rushed. But this was different. He was enjoying it too much, and it was only going to make this goodbye harder. 

He pushed her softly away a second time, wiping tears out of her eyes with his thumb as he looked down at her and smiled. 

“I’m so proud of you,” he whispered. 

“Thank you,” she answered with a smile creeping up on her face as well as she wiped away more tears. 

She slowly loosened her embrace, and he followed suit. He reached down, grabbing her palm and kissing it.

“Farewell, milady.”

“Farwell, milord.”

He watched as she slowly made her way towards the door that just a minute ago she’d opened the same way he did a year earlier. She put her hand on the doorframe at the entrance, almost as to gather enough strength to take the final step away from him, away from Greendale. She couldn’t do it, from all appearances, so he cleared his throat and spoke up one last time.

“You know, I’ve never been outside of Colorado in my entire life… I’d love to visit Utah sometime. You know… if that’s okay with you.”

She looked over her shoulder, propping herself up against the doorway and grinning ever so slightly. “I’d like that.”

“Unrelated, you wouldn’t happen to know what the Law Firm scene is like in Utah, would you?”

She laughed to herself, “I can look into it, if you’d like. I’m not sure if they look too kindly on drinking down there, the city being half-Mormon and everything” she joked, motioning to the bottle of scotch on his desk. He shrugged.

“I could stop,” he stated confidently.

She was trying to hide her surprise, but It seeped through just a little bit.

“Really? You think so?”

“For you? Of course.”

She grinned, ear to ear now, and took that last step out the door almost as if his final words had given her the extra boost she had needed. He stood there, alone in the lab for a few minutes before walking over to what he could only assume was a sewer pipe Borchert had busted open to use as a toilet. He pulled the cap off the Scotch, and poured it down into the sewer, before tossing in the bottle as well. 

He wouldn’t need it any more.

**Author's Note:**

> -I just chose Salt Lake City cuz its a major city in a state close to Colorado, once i started to write it i realized that maybe since so many people in the city don't drink cuz of their beliefs i could use it to address Jeff's drinking too? 
> 
> \- this was supposed to end a lot worse than it did but i simply couldn't bring myself to do it. I'm around 60% confident we'll get a J/A resolution this year, and i know for a fact that even if they don't get together, Dan won't make it a sad resolution either. 
> 
> \- the open endedness at the end was a way to imply that maybe Annie was the push Jeff needed to get out of Greendale. I didn't have the heart to end it on a bad note.


End file.
